A Chance of Redemption
by Univenon
Summary: In which a guy with the Echo meets Subject Seven. The guy has a really bad trip, Subject Seven finds something he can't kill, and somehow, things work out okay. (Continuation to Breaking Point.)


It had started off as such a quiet day. I like quiet days. That's why I lived in the middle of nowhere. My little cabin was situated in that gray area between where the roads from Gridania ended and the roads towards the empire began. Despite what my friends back in civilization thought, it was a rather peaceful life. All I ever had to deal with was the occasional trouble-making Sylph or maybe a monster. Though there was that one time a Morbol came through. Took me a month to get the smell out.

My name is Sasuke Harel. I'm of Doman descent, in case you didn't figure that out by the name alone. It comes out in the shape of my eyes mostly, though I've got darker hair for it too. I go by Sas. It gets me less funny looks around here, since most Eorzeans don't even know that there is a Doma, let alone where it is.

Before you ask, no. I'm not a ninja, nor do I have any training in ninjitsu. I barely know how to wield a knife, let alone two. There's more to Doma than ninjas. By Eorzean standards, I'm closest to a conjurer, since I have a thing for channeling light magic. I also know a fair bit of Thaumaturgy, though I'm terrible at it, and I'm pretty talented with Archanima, specifically summoning.

I also happen to have the Echo.

Suddenly, the reason I live out in the middle of nowhere becomes a lot clearer. Call it selfish, the squandering of a gift given by... whoever, but I don't like being randomly assaulted by memories and emotions that aren't mine, thanks.

"It's not like you to brood, Sas," said a voice. I looked up, seeing my ever-present companion, Griff. He appeared smaller than usual, only about the size of a cat, though when he was in full form, the snowy white griffon was closer to a horse. I sighed, shaking my head. He was a spirit, one of the things the Gridanians called "Elementals".

"Just thinking," I replied. "I haven't found any traces of imperial patrols in a while. They must have been pulled back, but I can't figure out why."

"Sas," said Griff, shaking his head at me. "We are linked enough for me to know when you're lying to me. You're thinking of Hasn'a again?" he asked.

"...Maybe a little," I replied. I only admitted it because I was sure he knew the answer already.

"You really should stop beating yourself up about it so much," he said. "You did what you could. Such things happen when your peoples go to war, do they not?"

"Yeah... They do, but I'm not... ready to forget about it just yet."

"I'm not telling you to forget, only to forgive. Mainly, yourself."

It was a conversation we'd had a million times and it always ended the same way. The truth was that I wasn't really willing to forgive myself for failing my best friend as I had back then. I knew that he would forgive me if he could, but I wasn't as nice as he was.

I was about to give him my usual answer, when the conversation was forced to come to a rather abrupt halt. The two of us looked to the northeast, feeling the same thing at the same time. The sense that something big was coming this way.

I pushed myself off of the doorframe where I had been leaning and pulled the goggles on my head down, over my eyes. I had no way of telling exactly what it was, but it didn't look like any monster I'd encountered before.

"Any ideas, Griff?" I asked.

"It is not native to the wood. That is certain," he replied, settling into his usual place over my right shoulder. Griff's answer gave me a few possibilities. Something the imperials cooked up, or something displaced by the Calamity. Most of the latter had settled over the last few years, leaving the former.

"Goodie," I muttered. I readied my aether to cast, just in case whatever it was happened upon my cabin. I liked it, and I didn't want to see it demolished if I didn't have to. So I waited. After a minute or two, something came out of the bushes.

It was a small, rather scrawny Miqo'te boy.

It was about the last thing I expected to see. I mean, I've never felt anything like that from a person before. The aether around this kid was so thick it was like trying to breathe water. The closest thing to that I've ever felt came from a primal. The primal was worse of course, seeing as there was enough aether around them to rewrite someone's brain.

We stared at each other and I took that moment to take in as much as I could. I saw a mark, some imperial numbers, had been branded into his shoulder. I saw that his wrists were burned, but the wounds were at least a couple days old. He looked like he hadn't had enough food in him for a long while. If he had more fur, I'm sure it would have been standing up. His ears were back against his head, his breathing was ragged. His eyes had a wild, crazed look, like a rabid animal.

I took a step back, not sure what I was even looking at. I realized in that moment that I shouldn't have. That sign of weakness wasn't something I could afford. He gave a snarl and brought that immense cloud of aether to bare against me.

I brought up a shield, Griff's power adding to my own. I didn't even have to ask, apparently. The kid's aether came at me as fire. A lot of fire. Lucky for me, he didn't know how to focus it, or it would have broken my shield easy. As it was, the fire lashed at my shield, but it held.

At that moment, our eyes met.

Then, badly timed as usual, the Echo decided to kick in.

What I got from that connection... was the worst I had ever had from the Echo in my life. I saw this kid grow up in a cell, where he never so much as saw the sun. The men said little to him. So little that he knew only a few words. A place where life was an endless cycle of the pain from the machine, the sickness that followed, then the fear, knowing that when the sickness finally went away, it would start all over again.

I heard the sounds of others in cells, all dieing of the same sickness he felt. One by one, they all died, leaving him alone to face the endless days, until something broke.

The thing about the Echo, is that it tends to come with a voice. That's why they say the Echo can help people communicate. Even if this kid didn't even know how to talk, I could still hear, still feel what he wished he could say.

[i]Help me. Please help me.[/i]

Yet, over that was another voice. It was still his, but it felt so different that it might as well have not been.

[i]No one will help me. I can only help myself, and I'll kill everyone who tries to get in my way.[/i]

I knew I was included in that list. I knew that I was just like the rest. The soldiers who tried to kill him. The scientists who had tortured him over and over. He was certain that I would treat him the same way as the rest.

So that meant I had to die, just like they did.

The vision ended with a rough jerk as I came to my senses. Lucky for me, I still had my barrier up, though that was mostly thanks to Griff. I had fallen to my knees at some point, but I couldn't remember when.

"Sas, is it over?" asked Griff. I gave my head another shake, trying to sort my own thoughts out of the ones that had just been shoved roughly between them. I felt tears in my eyes.

"Seven hells... That one sucked..." I muttered, forcing myself to my feet again. The kid came at me again, trying to break through the barrier with all the power he could muster. I could feel the shield cracking.

"What now?" asked Griff.

"I'm... not sure..." I admitted. "I think... I might be able to talk him down..."

The thing about communication is that it goes both ways. Even if he didn't get the abridged version of my life shoved into his head, that didn't mean that he didn't get anything out of it. If I had any luck, the connection might be fresh enough for me to get through to the poor kid.

He threw magic at me until he paused, falling back as he panted for breath from the effort. I took a chance. I lowered my shield, and raised my hands. I made no motion to bring any more aether against him. He stared at me, untrusting. Instead of attacking him with magic, I did my best to reach out to him with it.

I reached out, as if offering a hand to help him up. I sent out my aether with it, reaching just like my hand. He must have felt it. He flinched, taking a step back from me.

"It's alright now," I said quietly. Even if the words meant nothing, I hoped that my tone would reach him. "I'm not going to hurt you."

Hesitantly, he reached out, as if to take the hand I had made with my magic. Somehow, I'm not sure how, he took it into himself, mixing with the chaotic cloud that surrounded him. I wanted to flinch away from the contact myself. It turned out that someone taking aether that you're attached to feels really weird, but I forced myself to let him. I saw some of the burns on his wrists begin to heal. I could only guess that he was using my aether to do it.

"See? It's not so bad," I said. I took a gamble and I took a step towards him. He flinched, but didn't back away. I took another step, same reaction. As I slowly crept closer, I could see something in his eyes. I saw the kid I'd heard asking for help fighting to overcome the hatred and the fear that had consumed him.

I got within arm's reach, got down on my knees, and held out my hand to him.

He stared at me and my outreached hand for a long time. I waited. Then, slowly, he reached out and weakly took it. He stared at me. I smiled at him.

"No one's going to hurt you anymore."

He lowered his head. His shoulders shook. Gently, I wrapped an arm around them and he fell into me, sobbing. I knew that it would be a long time before he stopped and I couldn't blame him.

"It'll all be okay now. You're safe here."


End file.
